Sucralose is a chlorinated molecule resembling table sugar, as evidenced in FIG. 1. Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than table sugar and undergoes minimal breakdown by the human body. This allows users to sweeten their food and drink without any additional calories. Because sucralose is a chlorinated molecule, it may have harmful effects on humans and animals. Sucralose toxicity is a largely unstudied and unquantified field. In addition to studying sucralose's possible toxicity, sucralose can be studied because it is a good marker for wastewater movement and presence. Thus, accurate, cost-effective detection of sucralose is important because it will better allow researchers to understand the molecule's effect on varying ecosystems, as well as monitor the flow of wastewater through water systems. Currently, there is no accurate method of sucralose detection that is inexpensive, portable, or does not require significant sample preparation.
Two of the more common methods of sucralose detection are liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Because sucralose is hydrophilic, samples must be prepared before analysis by GC-MS. While GC-MS has high selectivity and sensitivity, the preparation required to use GC-MS makes it less than ideal for sucralose detection.
While LC-MS does not require the same sample preparation as GC-MS, the equipment associated with LC-MS can be expensive and cost prohibitive. Additionally, LC-MS, like GC-MS, requires large pieces of equipment that cannot be carried into the field. Rather, the conventional techniques require researchers to obtain samples in the field and transport them to a laboratory for analysis. This delay in time prevents researchers from being able to adjust their sample collection in the field based on findings of high or low sucralose.